M(_)H1LS. 



7K^-i 



CARPENTERS' HALL 



Chestnut Street, bet. Srd and 4th, ) 




Si^^sS 



AND ITS 



Historic Memories. 



PUBLISHED BY THE COMPANY. 

1876. 



t /6g 






::^ . •> 



CARPENTERS' HALL 



AND ITS 



HISTORIC MEMORIES. 



The Carpenters' Company of tlic City and County of 
Philadelphia is one of the oldest Associations of Pennsyl- 
vania, being instituted about forty years after the settle- 
ment of the province by William Penn, and maintaining 
an uninterrupted existence from the year 1724. Among 
its early members were many prominent in colonial his- 
tory, and whose architectural tastes are impressed upon 
buildings that yet remain, memorials of that early day. 

The object of the Association, as expressed in its Act of 
Incorporation, was to obtain instruction in the science of 
architecture and to assist such of its members as should by 
accident be in need of support, and of the widows and 
minor children of such members. 

Prominent among its founders was James Portius, who 
came to this country with William Penn to design and ex- 
ecute the proprietary building, and who, at his death in 
1736, bequeathed his library of architectural works to his 
fellow members, thus laying the foundation of the present 
library of the Company. The success of the Company led 



C) 

to the formation of rival associations; two of these, which 
had inherent strength in themselves, soon saw their mis- 
take, and negotiated for a union with their "elder breth- 
ren." 

The Hall of the Comi)any was erected in 1770, at the 
time Great Britain's persistent attempt "to bind the colo- 
nies in all cases whatsoever," had resulted m a general 
demand for a union of the colonies. 

In the excitement of the period, the State House being 
used by the existing Grovernment, the Hall of the Compa- 
ny became the great centre of gatherings for the redress of 
grievances or the assertion of rights, and almost all the 
"Town Meetings" of that eventful period were held on 
the lawn in front or within its walls. It began thus early 
to be used for civil purposes. The delegates from the 
"Town Meeting" in 1774 demanding the convening of 
the Assembly, met therein, and sent therefrom their com- 
mittee to Governor Penn, whose reply was read on their 
return that "he saw no necessity for calling the Assembly 
together," on which they appointed another committee to 
wait upon the "Speaker of the Assembly, demanding of 
him a positive answer whether lie would do it or not." 

Among the early events in the history of Carpenters' 
Hall, were the memorable sessions of the "Committee of 
the City and Count}'' of Philadelphia" to initiate measures 
for calling the first Continental Congress— to effect which 
an invitation was extended to the various counties of the 
Province, to meet the Philadelpliia Committee in confer- 
ence on loth July then next following. On Fourth op 
July, (by a singular coincidence) 1774, the latter ap- 
pointed a sub-committee to prepare "instructions," whicli 
the then great leader of Constitutional Rights, John Dick- 
inson thought "a duty, in order to be ready for the Pro- 



vincial Committee when it should meet." This great 
*'Provincial Committee,'' (so it was styled), pursuant to 
the call referred to, also met at Carpenters' Hall, and re- 
mained in session there till its important and effective 
labors were completed, July, 22d, 1774. Its Chairman was 
Thomas Willing, and its Clerk, Charles Thomson, and 
names of members as follows: 

John Dickinson, Peter Chevalier, Edward Pennington, 
Thomas Wharton, John Cox, Joseph Reed, Thomas 
Wharton, Jr., Samuel Erwin, Thomas Fitzsimons, Dr. 
William Smith, Isaac Howell, Adam Hubley, George 
Schlosser, Samuel Miles, Thomas Mifflin, Christopher Lud- 
wick, Joseph Moulder, Anthony Morris, Jr., George Gray, 
John Nixon, Jacob Barge, Thomas Penrose, John M. 
Nesbit, Jonathan B. Smith, James Mease, Thomas Bar- 
clay, Benjamin Marshall, Samuel Howell, William Moul- 
der, John Roberts, John Bayard, William Rush. 

Bucks— John Kidd, Henry Wynkoop, Joseph Kirkbride, 
John Wilkinson, James Wallace. 

Chester — Fran. Richardson, Elisha Price, John Hart, 
Anthony Wayne, Hugh Lloyd, John Sellers, Francis 
Johnson, Richard Reiley. 

Lancaster — George Ross, James Webb, Joseph Ferree, 
Matthias Slough, Emmanuel Carpenter, William Atlee, 
Alexander Lowrey, Moses Erwin. 

York — James Smith, Joseph Donaldson, Thomas Hart- 
ley. 

Cumberland — James Wilson, Robert Magaw, William 
Ervine. 

Berks — Edward Biddle, Daniel Brodhead, Jonathan 
Potts, Thomas Dundas, Christopher Schultz. 



Nortliam'pton — William Edmimds, Peter Keichlein, 
John Okeley, Jacob Arndt. 

Northumberland — "William Scull, Samuel Hunter. 

Bedford — George Woods. 

Westmoreland — Robert Hannah, James Carett. 

This list is given, since it is rarely to be met with, and 
includes the names of those men who formed the second 
link (the Non Importation Resolutions of 1765 of the mer- 
chants of Philadelphia being the first) in the local efforts 
to assert Constitutional rights. This Committee, *'in a 
body, waited upon the Assembly then sitting" at the State 
House, and presented the "Instructions" to appoint dele- 
gates to represent Pennsylvania in the intended Congress, 
and to require them, for and on behalf of the citizens of 
this Province "strenuously to exert themselves to obtain 
a renunciation on the part of Great Britain of all powers 
of internal legislation for America, or of imposing taxes, 
&c., &c., and a repeal of every other statute particularly 
affecting the Province of Massachusetts Bay, passed in the 
last session of Parliament. 

These "Instructions," with the argumentative part upon 
which they were predicated, were esteemed so admira- 
ble as to elicit a formal vote of thanks to their author, INIr. 
Dickinson, rendered (by resolution) publicly from the 
chair, "for the application of his eminent abilities to the 
service of his country. ' ' 

The Assembly, by vote the day following, comj^lied with 
these instructions, and appointed delegates to the "First 
American Congress," Amongst the members were Pey- 
ton Randolph, Samuel and John Adams, Roger Sherman, 
Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Christopher Gadsden, 
the Rutledges, and our own John Dickinson, witliout 



9 

whom the Congress was considered incomplete, and who 
hence was added by the Assembly within six weeks. 
George Washington, too, was a member of this Congress. 

They assembled at the "Merchants' Coffee House," on 
Second Street, near "Walnut, and walked in a body to "Car- 
penters' Hall," the scene of their deliberations. These 
devoted patriots conscious of the impending perils of the 
movement, resolved that all their transactions, except such 
as they should resolve to publish, should be kept inviola- 
bly secret. 

Thus, in *•' The Carpenters' Hall" commenced that se- 
ries of deliberations which ultimated, on the 4th of July, 
1776, in declaring the Colonies "Free and Independent." 

BEAUTIFUL REMINISENCE OF THE FIRST AMERICAN CON- 
GRESS, FROM THE PEN OF THE VENERABLE JOHN ADA3IS, 

*^WIien the Congress met, Mr. Gushing made a motion 
that it should be opened loith prayer. It loas opposed by 
Mr. Jay of Neio York, and Mr. Butledge of South Carolina, 
because we were so divided in religious sentiments — some 
Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Pres- 
byterians, and some Congregationalists, — that loe could not 
join in the same kind of worship. 

Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said "■tJiat he was no bigot, 
and could hear a prayer from any gentleman of piety and 
virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his country; 
he was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that 
Mr. PucM, {Duchay they pronounce it)., deserved that 
character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche, an 
Episcopalian Clergyman might be desired to read prayers 
to Congress to-ihorrow morning.^' The motion teas sec- 
onded and passed in the ajjirmative. 

Mr. Randolph, our President waited upon Mr. Duch^, 
and received for answer, that if his health tcould x>ermit, he 
certainly would. Accordingly next morning he appeared 
with his clerk and in his j)ontificials, and read several 



10 

prayers in ihe esiabUsJied for^n, and ilicn read the psalter 
for the 1th day of September, which was the oZih jmdm — 
you must rememher that this loas the next morning after 
we had heard of the horrible cannonade of Boston. It 
seemed as if heaven had ordained that ptsahn to be read on 
that morning. 

After this, Mr. Ducht% unexpectedly to everybody struck 
out into extempore prayer, which filled the bosom of every 
man present — I must corf ess I iiever heard a better prayer 
or one so well pronoiinced — Episcopalian as he is, Dr. 
Cooyer himself never prayed with such fervor, such ardor j 
such correctnei^s and pathos, and in language so eJegant 
and sublime, for America, for Congress, for the province 
of Massachusetts Bay, especially the town of Boston — It 
had excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to 
read the psalm. If there is any faith in the Sortfs Virgil- 
liance, or Ilomericxe, or especially the JSortes Biblicce it 
would have been thought providential. 

Here loas a scene worthy of the painter"^ s n,rt. It was in 
Carpenters' Hall, in Philadelphia, a building which still 
survives, that the devoted individuals met to whom this ser- 
vice icas read. Washington was kneeling there, and Henry y 
and Bandolph, and Butledge^ and Lee, and Jay., and by 
their side their stood, bowed in reverence, the Puritan 
Patriots of New England, who at that moment had reason 
to believe that an armed soldiery was wasting their humble 
households. It loas believed that Boston had been bombarded 
and destroyed. They pray ed fervently for America, for the 
Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay and espec- 
ially for the town of Boston, and tcha can realize the emo- 
tions with which they turned imploringly to heaven for divine 
interposition and aid.? It was enough, said Mr. Adams, "■to 
melt a heart of stone.'''' I saw t'se tears, gush into the eyes 
of the old grave pacific Quakers of Philadelphia. 

One of the memorable resolves of that Congress was an 
address to the people of Great Britian, adopted October 21st, 
1774, in which they say, "But if you are determined that 
your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of man- 
kind — if neither the voice of Justice, the dictates of the 



11 

law, the principles of the Constitution, or the suggestions 
of humanity, can restrain your dancls from shedding 
human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell 
you, that we will never submit to be hewers of wood or 
drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world." 

In an address to the inhabitants of the Colonies of the 
same date they say, *'But we think ourselves bound in duty 
to observe to j'ou, that the chemes agitated against these 
Colonies have been so conducted as to render it prudent 
that you should extend your views to mournful events, and 
be, in all respects, prepared for any contingency. Above 
all things, we earnestly entreat you, with devotion of spirit, 
penitence of heart, and amendment of life, to humble 
yourselves and implore the favor of Almighty God ; and 
Ave fervently beseech his Divine goodness to take you into 
his gracious prjtection." 

In Carpenters' Hall, also, met on 18th of June, 1776, a 
convention which exercised a controlling influence on the 
question oi Independence. 

The Assembly of Pennsylvania had appointed their del- 
egates under the following "instructions." 

"We strictly enjoin you, that you, on behalf of this 
Colony, desist from and utterly reject, any proposition, 
should such be made, that may cause, or lead to a separa- 
tion from our Mother Country or a change in the form of 
government." Hence the delegates of Pennsylvania did 
not give their votes in Congress "for establishing govern- 
ment throughout the continent on the authority of the peo- 
ple," which Congress had recommended on the 15th of 
M'A.y, preceding. Richard Henry Lee had on the 7th of 
June, formally introduced his celebrated resolution for a 
separation, and the Pennsylvania delegates in Congress 
were under instructions to oppose it, when this " Provin- 



12 

cial Conference" met. It was composed of representatives 
from all the counties of the Province, and was presided 
over by Thomas McKean ; it had as members, Benjamin 
Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Jona. B. Smith, Henry Wyn- 
koop, James Smith, Alexander Lowry, Joseph Heister, 
John Creigh, and some ninety others. 

This Provincial Conference resolved that the present 
government of the Province was not competent for the ex- 
igencies of our affairs. 

Resolved, That the present House of Assembly was not 
elected for the purpose of forming a new government. 

Resolved^ That the present House of Assembly, not hav- 
ing the authority of the people for that purpose, cannot 
proceed without assuming arbitrary powers. 

Resolved,T\\QX a Provincial Convention be called for the 
express purpose of forming a government in the Province, 
on the authority of the i^eople only. 

Resolved, That we will support the measures now 
adopted at all hazards, be the consequences what they 
may. 

Besides complying with the purposes for which they had 
been assembled, they patriotically determined to act for 
their constituents. 

On Sunday, the 23d of June, 1776, a Committee consist- 
ing of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Col. Joseph Small, and Col. 
Thomas McKean, were appointed to draft a resolution de- 
claring the sense of the Conference with respect to the in- 
dependence of the Province from the crown of Great Brit- 
ian, and to report next morning. 

On Monday morning, the 24th of June, the Committee 
brought in a draft of a Declaration of Independence for 
the Colony of Pennsylvania, which was read bj' special 



13 

order, and being fully considered was unanimously agreed 
to, in the following words: 

♦♦"Whereas, George the III, King of Great Biitian, 
(fee., «&c., in violation of the principles of the British Con- 
stitution, and of the laws of justice and humanity, hath, 
by an accumulation of oppressions unparallelled in history, 
excluded the inhabitants of this, with the other Colonies, 
from his protection. 

And whereas. He hath no regard to our numerous and 
dutiful petitions for a redress of our compliciited grievances, 
but hath lately purchased foreign troops to assist in enslav- 
ing us, and hath excited the savages of this country to 
carry on a war against us, and also the negroes to imbue 
their hands in the blood of their masters in a manner un- 
practised by civilized nations, and hath lately insulted our 
calamities by declaring that he will show us no mercy un- 
til he hath reduced us. 

And whereas, The obligation of allegiance, being recip- 
rocal between a king and his subjects, are now dissolved, 
on the side of the Colonists, by the despotism of the said 
king, in as much that it now appears that loyalty to him 
is treason against the people of this country. 

And whereas, Not only the Parliament, but there is 
reason to believe many of the people of Great Britian have 
connived at the aforesaid arbitrary and unjust proceedings 
against us. 

And whereas, The public virtue of the Colony so es- 
sential to its liberty and happiness, must be endangered by 
a future political union with or dependence upon a crown 
and nation so lost to justice, patriotism, and magnanimity. 
"We, the deputies of the people of Pennsylvania, assembled 



14 

in full Provincial Conference for forming a plan for exe- 
cuting the resolve of Congress of tlie lotli of May last, for 
supf)ressing all autlioritj'- in this province deriA'^ed from the 
crown of Great Britain, and for establishing a government 
on the autliority of the people only, now, in this public 
manner, in behalf of oui-selves, and with the approbation, 
consent, and authorit}' of our constituents, unanimously 
declare our willingness to concur in a vote of Congress de- 
claring the United Colonies Free and Independent States, 
provided the forming the goA'ernment and the regulation of 
the internal affairs of this Colony be always reserved to 
the people of this Colony; and we do further call upon 
the nations of Europe, and appeal to the Great Arbiter 
and governor of the empires of this w^orld, to witness for 
us, that this Declaration Act does not originate in ambition 
or in an impatience of lawful authority, but that we Avcre 
driven to it in obedience to the first principles of nature, 
by the oppressions and cruelties of the aforesaid king and 
Parliament of Great Britian, as the only possible measure 
that was left us to preserve and establish our liberties and 
to transmit them inviolate to our posterity." 

It was signed by eighty-five deputies, and delivered by 
their President to Congress. They also patriotically deter 
mined to act for their constituents, and to instruct the 
Pennsylvania delegates in Congress to concur in declaring 
the United Colonies Free and Independent States, and to 
disregard "instructions" from the Assembly, which reso- 
lution tbey also formerly transmitted to Congress. In 
prompt response to the call of this Conference, assembled 
the * ConA'ention of 177b'" to frame a Constitution for the 
Independent State of Pennsylvania. Congress adopted 
the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July, and 
on the 15tli of the same montli this Convention in Carpen- 



15 

ters' Hall ratilied Ihe action of Congress aud adopted a 
Constitution which served as the fundamental law until 
the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. 

In an address to his fellow citizens on the action of this 
* 'Convention" the Chairman, Thomas McKean, said, "It 
is now in your power to immortalize your names by mingl- 
ing your achievements with the events of the year 1776 — 
a 3'ear which we hope will he ftimed in the annals of his- 
tory to the end of time, for establishing upon a lasting 
foundation the liberation of one quarter of the globe." 
Thus was prefigured our great Magna Cliarta in Carpen- 
ters' Hall, the scene of their anxious deliberations. 

The use of Carpenters' Hall for the popular cause was 
almost continuous, and when, the next Congress convened 
at the State House, the Committees of that body and their 
most important "Committee of Safety" held in their secret 
services within its walls. That Congress, though meeting 
in the State House, assembled in Carpenters' Hall to pro- 
ceed in a body to the funeral of their deceased President, 
Peyton Randolph, October, 1775. 

Christopher Marshall, in his diary, under date of Octo- 
ber 24th, 1775, says : "Past two, went and met part of 
Committee at Coffee House, and from thence went in a 
body to Carpenters' Hall, in order to attend the funeral of 
Peyton Randolph (the first President of the first Continen- 
tal Congress), who had departed this life suddenly after 
dinner, last first day, at the country house of Richard Hill: 
then proceeded to Christ Church, where a sermon was 
preached by Jacob Duche; then to Christ Church burial 
ground. 

Among those whose manhood early appeared in a pro- 
test against the Church and State government of the early 
New England colonies were the Baptists. Holding among 



IG 

themselves all that was great in Puritanism, a manly en- 
durance of persecution, they submitted to imprisonment 
and death. 

Mr. Bachius was the moderator of the Warren Baptist 
Association of Massachusetts, and when the opposition of 
Great Britian stirred up a manly advocacy of liberty in the 
land, and in 1774 a Congress of Delegates from the Prov- 
inces met in Philadelphia, he and the suffering churches he 
represented thought it a proper opportunity to appeal fol 
relief from their affliction. He therefore came to Philadel- 
phia some time in the early fall of 1774. The Philadelphia 
Baptist Association was at the time in session, and he laid 
before them a statement of the grievances and sufferings 
of the New England Baptists. 

A Committee was appointed to act with him in prepar- 
ing a memorial to lay before Congress, and the support 
and assistance of all the sects not dominant in the Prov- 
inces solicited. To this responded particularly the Quak- 
ers, who, although controlling Pennsylvania, were espec- 
ially obnoxious to the New Englanders. A conference be- 
tween them and the Baptist Committee was held at the 
office of Robert Strettle Jones, a distinguished lawyer of 
the day. 

It was finally concluded that before addressing a memo- 
rial to Congress a meeting with the delegates from New 
England should be had, and upon this resulted a session 

IN CARPENTERS' HALL 

on the 14th of October, 1774, a day worthy of commem- 
oration. 

All friends of religious liberty, in or out of Congress, 
were invited. John Adams, surly and indignant, Samuel 
Adams, Thomas Cushing, and Robert Treat Paine ap- 



17 

pearcJ lor Massachusetts. The Calliolics of Maryland 
were represented by Charles Carroll, of Carrolton, and 
his colleagues. Even Cavalier and Episcopal Virginia, 
appeared. 

From New Jersey, James Krintzle ; from Rhode Island, 
Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward ; from Pennsylvania, 
Joseph Galloway and Thomas Mifflin, represented the 
sympathies of their constituents with the motives of the 
conference. The Quakers were particularly strong in the 
lepresentation of Israel and James Pemberton and John 
Fox, while the Baptists stood forth with the proud repre- 
sentation of President Manning, of Brown University, 
Robert Strettle Jones, and Mr. Samuel Davis. 

John Adams, in his diary, discourses with the earnest- 
ness of the Puritan and the Federalist concerning this 
conference. The principal speaker appears to have been 
Israel Pemberton, the Quaker, who, noting the grievances 
of his sect and others in Massachusetts Bay, John Adams 
accuses of Jesuitism. Says Adams ; '' I responded to 
him with great heat, not willing to hear my people thus 
attacked," and he declared that in Massachusetts was and 
ever had been the purest political liberty known. 

"Then" says a record of the period, "up rose Israel 
Pemberton; 'John, John' he said, 'dost thou not know 
of the time when Friends were hung in thy colony, when 
Baptists were hung and whipped, and finally when Edward 
Shippen, a great merchant of Boston was publically whipped 
because he would not subscribe to the belief of thee and 
thy fathers, and was driven to the colony of which he 
afterwards became Governor?" 

The conference ended at the time m nothing. But the 
struggle for religious liberty thus begun in Carpenters' 
Hall was not abandoned. Never forgotten and urged by 



18 

the Catholics of Maryland, the Friends of Pennsylvania, 
and the Baptists of Khode Island and Xew England, the 
cause grew until its principles were embodied in the Fed- 
eral Constitution, and to day exists in the Constitution of 
every State in the Union except New Hampshire. 

When the British took possession, in 1777, of the city of 
Philadelphia, a portion of their army was quartered in the 
Hall, and continued there during the time they occupied 
the city. The soldiers made a target of the vane on the 
cupalo, and several holes were drilled through it by their 
bullets. 

The early movement for the encouragement of American 
industries is identified with Carpenters' Hall. A public 
meeting of citizens was held at the Hall, and subscriptions 
made for that object. The following is from the papers of 
that day: 

"The subscribers towards a fund for establishing and 
carrying on American manufacture of linens, woolens, 
&c., are requested to meet at Carpenters' Hall, on 5th day 
next, the IGth inst., at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, to con- 
sider a plan for carrying the same into execution." They 
organized; the Chairman on taking his seat said, "Pov- 
erty, with all its other evils, has joined with it in every 
part of Europe all the miseries of slavery. America is 
now the only asylum for liberty in the whole world. By 
establishing manufactories we stretch forth a hand from the 
ark and invite the timid manufacturer to come in. By 
bringing manufacturers into this land of liberty and plen- 
ty, we remove them from the state in which they existed 
in their own country, and place them in circumstances to 
enable them to become husbands and fathers, and add to 
the general tide of human happiness. In closing the im- 
ports from Great Britain, the wisdom of Congress cannot 



m 



19 



be too much admired. A people who are entirely de- 
pendent on foreigners for food and clothing must always 
be subject to them. That poverty, confinement, and deatli 
are trifling evils compared with that total depravitj' of 
heart which is connected with slavery. By becoming 
slaves we shall lose every principle of virtue; we shall 
transfer an unlimited obedience from our ]\Iaker to a cor- 
rupt majority of the British House of Commons, and shall 
esteem their crimes the certificate of their divine right to 
govern us. We shall cease to look upon the Court and 
]\Iinistry — harpies who hoA'cr around the liberties of our 
countr}' — with detestation; we shall hug our chains and 
cease to be men." 

In 1787 the United States Commissary-General of Mili- 
tary Stores occupied the Hall, and from 1773 to 1790 the 
books of the Philadelphia Library, then the nucleus only 
of the magnificent collection which now exists, were also 
deposited there. 

In 1787 sundry deputies of the convention >to frame 
a Constitution for the United States appeared at the State 
House, but a majority not being present, adjourned from 
day to day. A quorum having arrived, they held their 
sessions for that time in "The Carpenters' Hall" where 
"they deliberated with closed doors, and at the end of four 
months agreed uix)n a Constitution for the United States of 
America," making the Carpenters' Hall memorial both 
for the first united effort to obtain a redress of grievances 
from the Mother Country, and the place wiiere the Fathers 
of the Republic changed by the Constitution a loose league 
of separate States into a powerful nation. 

The Hall has also been largely used for public purposes. 
During the Revolution it was partly used by tlie Commis- 
sary-General of Military Stores, and a temix)rary building 



20 

erected by him for a "brass foundry and file cutting shop;" 
and at times by the Barrack Master. 

In 1791 the first Bank of the United States transacted its 
banking business there for upwards of six years, and up- 
on their removal to their new banking house, The "Bank 
of the State of Pennsylvania" occupied it until they 
erected their banking-house on Second street. 

The United States occupied it for their Land Office for a 
short period, when the business of the Custom House was 
removed to it, and it continued as such about fourteen 
years, until the incorporation of the second Bank of the 
United States, when the United States surrendered it by 
agreement to that institution, which occupied it about four 
years. 

On the removal of the Bank, the Apprentices' Library- 
had their collection on the second story for about seven 
years, after which the Franklin Institute occupied the 
Hall and held within it the first exhibition of domestic 
manufactures ever offered to the American public. 

The Convention for a monument to the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence met and held their delibera- 
tions in it. 

In 1857 the Carpenters' Company, with a reverence for 
their old Hall which has so well stood the test of time, 
being connected with so many stirring incidents in our 
national history, in a belief that its stor}'- is instructive 
and valuablt3, withdrew it from the purpose of trade and 
commerce, and devoted it to their own use and the recol- 
lections of the historic memories that cluster around it, as 
the Nation's Birth Place. 



